Power formats for online advertising
The Internet Advertising Bureau has standardized seven new interactive marketing units
The Internet Advertising Bureau has standardized seven new Interactive Marketing Unitsby clemens hörlerLarger advertising spaces should increase the effectiveness of internet advertising and give creatives more leeway. A few days ago, the IAB standardized seven new formats. These are also to be pushed in Switzerland.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has expanded the number of standardized online advertising formats. Two vertical formats, the skyscraper (120 x 600 pixels) and the wide skyscraper (160 x 600 pixels), a square pop-up (250 x 250 pixels) and four rectangular advertising spaces have been added to the existing banner formats.
"The new Interactive Marketing Units (IMU) should help to increase the creative possibilities of online advertising and make online advertising a more effective marketing tool," emphasizes Richy Glassberg, Vice-Chairman of the IAB.
A large number of the IMUs presented are already in use on American websites in particular, in some cases with considerable success: the news service Cnet was able to significantly increase its click rate thanks to the large-format and still unfamiliar ads. This certainly has a lot to do with the fact that the unfamiliar advertising space still arouses users' curiosity.
The "wrong" formats were introduced in Switzerland
Only the skyscrapers can be seen on Swiss sites, but in a size other than that standardized by the IAB, namely 148 x 800 or 148 x 400 pixels. Martin Radelfinger, President of the IAB Switzerland and Managing Director of AdLink Switzerland: "AdLink has completed the implementation of the 'wrong' formats on all Winner and some Tamedia platforms. We just assumed that the format of NYT.com and Forbes. com would prevail." Other Swiss advertising companies and website operators have also jumped on the bandwagon.
Fortunately, however, you could say that the Skyscraper has not yet found its way onto too many Swiss platforms. The changeover only has to take place on a few platforms of the Basel Media Group and Tamedia and a few other sites. Radelfinger is convinced that the problem can be solved together with marketers, intermediaries and website operators and that the new IAB banner formats will spread quickly here too. An IAB Switzerland working group with advertising intermediaries, marketers and platform operators will support the second round of standardization.
The ball is in the
Website operators
The IAB suggests that website operators accept a maximum weight of 15 to 20 kilobytes (KB) for the new banners. This is only a few KB more than for full banners (468 x 60 pixels). However, with the considerable size of a wide skyscraper or a large rectangle (336 by 280 pixels), creativity has only limited freedom. Various Internet agencies tend to set the reasonable weight for creatives at 25 KB.
The website operators will probably not be able to avoid making slight concessions to advertising customers in terms of weight. BaZ Online, for example, accepts a maximum weight of 25 KB for a skyscraper of 148 x 800 pixels and 23 KB for 148 x 400 pixels.
Which new interactive marketing units will establish themselves and how quickly depends largely on the website operators. "So far, too few platforms in Switzerland have enabled large-scale advertising," observes Peter Strassmann, Managing Director of ActiveAgent Switzerland AG. "Under these circumstances, it is often not worthwhile for clients to create a large advertising format. The ball is now in the websites' court." According to initial surveys in the USA, many advertisers are convinced by the new formats, not only because of their size, but also because of their visual similarity to print ads.
The new banner formats can be found in their original size on the IAB website: www.iab.net/ advertise/adsource.html
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has expanded the number of standardized online advertising formats. Two vertical formats, the skyscraper (120 x 600 pixels) and the wide skyscraper (160 x 600 pixels), a square pop-up (250 x 250 pixels) and four rectangular advertising spaces have been added to the existing banner formats.
"The new Interactive Marketing Units (IMU) should help to increase the creative possibilities of online advertising and make online advertising a more effective marketing tool," emphasizes Richy Glassberg, Vice-Chairman of the IAB.
A large number of the IMUs presented are already in use on American websites in particular, in some cases with considerable success: the news service Cnet was able to significantly increase its click rate thanks to the large-format and still unfamiliar ads. This certainly has a lot to do with the fact that the unfamiliar advertising space still arouses users' curiosity.
The "wrong" formats were introduced in Switzerland
Only the skyscrapers can be seen on Swiss sites, but in a size other than that standardized by the IAB, namely 148 x 800 or 148 x 400 pixels. Martin Radelfinger, President of the IAB Switzerland and Managing Director of AdLink Switzerland: "AdLink has completed the implementation of the 'wrong' formats on all Winner and some Tamedia platforms. We just assumed that the format of NYT.com and Forbes. com would prevail." Other Swiss advertising companies and website operators have also jumped on the bandwagon.
Fortunately, however, you could say that the Skyscraper has not yet found its way onto too many Swiss platforms. The changeover only has to take place on a few platforms of the Basel Media Group and Tamedia and a few other sites. Radelfinger is convinced that the problem can be solved together with marketers, intermediaries and website operators and that the new IAB banner formats will spread quickly here too. An IAB Switzerland working group with advertising intermediaries, marketers and platform operators will support the second round of standardization.
The ball is in the
Website operators
The IAB suggests that website operators accept a maximum weight of 15 to 20 kilobytes (KB) for the new banners. This is only a few KB more than for full banners (468 x 60 pixels). However, with the considerable size of a wide skyscraper or a large rectangle (336 by 280 pixels), creativity has only limited freedom. Various Internet agencies tend to set the reasonable weight for creatives at 25 KB.
The website operators will probably not be able to avoid making slight concessions to advertising customers in terms of weight. BaZ Online, for example, accepts a maximum weight of 25 KB for a skyscraper of 148 x 800 pixels and 23 KB for 148 x 400 pixels.
Which new interactive marketing units will establish themselves and how quickly depends largely on the website operators. "So far, too few platforms in Switzerland have enabled large-scale advertising," observes Peter Strassmann, Managing Director of ActiveAgent Switzerland AG. "Under these circumstances, it is often not worthwhile for clients to create a large advertising format. The ball is now in the websites' court." According to initial surveys in the USA, many advertisers are convinced by the new formats, not only because of their size, but also because of their visual similarity to print ads.
The new banner formats can be found in their original size on the IAB website: www.iab.net/ advertise/adsource.html
